oh how He loves
today i had a profound realization in the midst of the mundane.
to set the stage: poor husband has been working nights this week, and in order to actually squeeze out a few hours of sleep, i needed to keep the not so quiet 19 month old occupied. to the store we went! i had this strange compulsion to buy my daughter a baby doll stroller. that day. weird because A) i never buy her toys (thank you generous friends and family!) and B) i always over-think, over-review, over-procrastinate ALL purchases (thank you Amazon Prime!). but no. we needed a doll stroller. and we needed it that day.
at home this new doll stroller reignited a passion for her baby doll. she pushed it around all afternoon, and then took to just carrying it. at one point she picked up the doll from the stroller and signed "cry" (thank you Signing Time!) until i asked if her baby was crying. After replying in the affirmative she sat down and shushed, rocked and kissed that doll while i was stopped in my tracks.
it's not that what she was doing was so special or strange or out of the ordinary, comforting a baby; it's that i realized she learned it from me. because i'm an awesome mom.
jk. because that's how love works.
love is action. it is meeting needs. wiping tears. consoling. disciplining. holding. being present.
i tell my child that i love her everyday. like a hundred times. sometimes she signs back that she loves me. and man does that get me right in the feels. or, more recently, she responds with an emphatic and verbal "no". i am then forced to go into our regular philosophical discussion about how i love her no matter what, nothing she says or does can change it, etc, etc. all that to say: my kid doesn't understand love because i tell her, but rather because i show her. she knows that i love her because i feed her, change her, play with her, hold her, hug her, answer her, rock her, wipe her tears, kiss her booboos. she was merely imitating her reality.
and then i realized the same is true for me. i'm loving my child, meeting her needs, wiping her tears because that is my reality. God is doing those very same things for me, always. he provides before i can ask, he draws me close when i'm hurting, he disciplines me when i stray, and he is always there.
i love how God uses the strangest compulsions to give us yet another glimpse of himself. and i love how his love can't help but pour out of us.
"we love because he first loved us"
to set the stage: poor husband has been working nights this week, and in order to actually squeeze out a few hours of sleep, i needed to keep the not so quiet 19 month old occupied. to the store we went! i had this strange compulsion to buy my daughter a baby doll stroller. that day. weird because A) i never buy her toys (thank you generous friends and family!) and B) i always over-think, over-review, over-procrastinate ALL purchases (thank you Amazon Prime!). but no. we needed a doll stroller. and we needed it that day.
at home this new doll stroller reignited a passion for her baby doll. she pushed it around all afternoon, and then took to just carrying it. at one point she picked up the doll from the stroller and signed "cry" (thank you Signing Time!) until i asked if her baby was crying. After replying in the affirmative she sat down and shushed, rocked and kissed that doll while i was stopped in my tracks.
it's not that what she was doing was so special or strange or out of the ordinary, comforting a baby; it's that i realized she learned it from me. because i'm an awesome mom.
jk. because that's how love works.
love is action. it is meeting needs. wiping tears. consoling. disciplining. holding. being present.
i tell my child that i love her everyday. like a hundred times. sometimes she signs back that she loves me. and man does that get me right in the feels. or, more recently, she responds with an emphatic and verbal "no". i am then forced to go into our regular philosophical discussion about how i love her no matter what, nothing she says or does can change it, etc, etc. all that to say: my kid doesn't understand love because i tell her, but rather because i show her. she knows that i love her because i feed her, change her, play with her, hold her, hug her, answer her, rock her, wipe her tears, kiss her booboos. she was merely imitating her reality.
and then i realized the same is true for me. i'm loving my child, meeting her needs, wiping her tears because that is my reality. God is doing those very same things for me, always. he provides before i can ask, he draws me close when i'm hurting, he disciplines me when i stray, and he is always there.
i love how God uses the strangest compulsions to give us yet another glimpse of himself. and i love how his love can't help but pour out of us.
"we love because he first loved us"
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